The ultimate Christmas wedding
Festive food
Nothing says ‘Christmas’ better than food. It is a time for enjoying warming meals and decadent desserts. One of the main ways to capture this aspect of Christmas is to incorporate festive flavours and dishes into your wedding menu. If, however, you wanted to steer away from traditional soup, roast turkey and Christmas pudding, then be creative and choose Christmas-inspired treats instead. Consider ‘pigs in blankets’ canapés with a sprig of rosemary as a skewer; poached pear and walnut salad with a sticky glaze for a starter; a hog roast with roast potatoes and cranberry sauce for the main meal; and the pièce de résistance, a roasted chestnut chocolate torte for dessert. For late night buffet nibbles, have miniature classic winter food, such as mini beef wellingtons, toad in the hole and cheese and crackers. No wonder Father Christmas is so chubby!
Delicious wedding drinks
If the food menu is not enough to whet your appetite, then these tempting tipples will sure excite you; turn your average champagne reception into a sparkling soirée by adding edible glitter to your flutes of fizzing champagne, cava or prosecco. Keep things simple with Bucks Fizz, the classic Christmas drink of Cava and fresh orange, or spice things up a bit with orange and cinnamon vodka cocktails with sugar around the rim for that frost effect. There’s always warm apple cider and eggnog, but as a welcome drink or to accompany your wedding breakfast, these rich festive drinks may be a bit too heavy.
Christmas wedding favours
Often it is those added extras that can pack the biggest punch. When it comes to the ultimate Christmas wedding, attention to detail is crucial. Things such as favours can be an opportunity to add festive detail; consider personalised candy canes, gingerbread men in cellophane or bags of chocolate coins for the children. Individual scented candles in aromas such as orange, cinnamon and cranberry work well for the adults, or how about giving each guest a Christmas bauble with the date of your wedding day written on in glitter? This makes the perfect keepsake from your special day and doubles up as a favour the guests can use after the big day.
End of the night
Just like the night before Christmas, the end of your wedding day can be just as exciting and enjoyable. Don’t see it as the end of a perfect day; see it instead as the beginning of your lives together. With this in mind, treat the eleventh hour of your wedding day as Christmas Eve, complete with hot chocolates served in tiny goblets, sprinkled with marshmallows and scented with cinnamon, with a comforting chocolate chip cookie or mini mince pie. For the ultimate Christmas feature, take things one step further and hire a roasted chestnuts cart and vendor for guests to satisfy their late night munchies. Washed down with a few sips of mulled wine or an Irish coffee and your guests will be in festive heaven. This will also warm them all up nicely, ready to huddle outside to watch the happy couple leave on a horse-drawn cart; bride wrapped in faux white fur and jingle bells trailing behind the carriage.
Capturing Christmas
Christmas means something different to everyone and there are so many different aspects that make December 25th so special. Don’t attempt to capture every aspect of Christmas, but instead focus on the things that are significant to you. If you have fond memories of the Christmas lights being switched on in your childhood, then decorate stairways and doorways with fairy lights, or if it is the church candles that are part of your Christmas memories, then adorn the tables with crisp, white candles that can flicker during the speeches. Whatever you choose, make it personal – even if that means hanging Christmas stockings from every guest’s chair or making them sing carols around a fire.
Styling the perfect Christmas wedding
With endless ways to decorate your home at Christmas time, the same applies to your Christmas wedding. Christmas styling can often be a fine balance – it can turn from traditional and tasteful to cheesy and cheap so easily, so try not to go overboard with tinsel and reindeer. After all, the ultimate Christmas wedding should reflect a Dickensian utopia rather than a shopping mall Santa’s grotto. With this in mind, opt for glittering pine cones, branches bejeweled with holly berries and silver-sprayed branches hung with fairy lights and glistening baubles. As a centrepiece, use large glass bowls filled with baubles to match your colour scheme or simply cluster candles of different heights and colours, and decorate them with ribbon or jewelled brooches. Read more on getwed.com...
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